I thank the Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and the esteemed Mayor of the City of Galway for this warm welcome. It is a special pleasure for me to be able to come West today across the width of Ireland to beautiful Galway Bay.

To you, dear Brother, pastor of this Western See which in Saint Patrick's time was "beyond the confines of the inhabited earth", but which now is at the meeting place of Europe and the Americas—to you and to your priests, religious and laity I extend a word of special greeting. It honours your Diocese and your City that you invited me to meet with representatives of all the youth of Ireland. Among you I shall meet the future of Ireland, those who will carry the torch of the Christian faith into the twenty-first century.

On this first visit of the Vicar of Christ on earth to the people of the West of Ireland, I wish to ask your prayerful support for my universal mission as Bishop of Rome. I count in a special way on your daily prayers for me in your families, when parents and children together invoke the help of the Lord Jesus and of his Mother Mary.

May God bless this City and its inhabitants, and grant his strength to the weak and the sick, his courage to those who struggle, and his peace and joy to all.